Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek hero Herakles and he’s the most popular

figure from ancient Greek mythology. He was the son of Zeus, king of the Gods, and
the mortal woman Alcmene.

Hercules was born a demi-god with stupefying strength and stamina, yet his life
was far from easy. Hera, Zeus’ wife knew he was an offspring of her husband and
wanted to destroy him. Early on she sent two serpents to kill him, but baby Hercules
strangled both of them. He was brought up at the course of his supposed-father
Amphitryon, where he had the best tutors and learned everything from wrestling over
archery and horseback riding to playing the lyre and singing.

Later he went successfully into war and as a young hero he married Megara,
with whom he had three strong sons. Driven mad by Hera (queen of the gods),
Hercules slew his son, daughter, and wife Megara. After recovering his sanity, Hercules
deeply regretted his actions; he was purified by King Thespius, then traveled
to Delphi to inquire how he could atone for his actions. Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi,
advised him to go to Tiryns and serve his cousin King Eurystheus for twelve years,
performing whatever labors Eurystheus might set him; in return, he would be rewarded
with immortality. Hercules despaired at this, loathing to serve a man whom he knew to
be far inferior to himself, yet fearing to oppose his father Zeus. Eventually, he placed
himself at Eurystheus's disposal.

Eurystheus originally ordered Hercules to perform ten labours. Hercules

accomplished these tasks, but Eurystheus refused to recognize two: the slaying of
the Lernaean Hydra, as Hercules' nephew and charioteer Iolaus had helped him; and
the cleansing of the Augeas, because Hercules accepted payment for the labour.
Eurystheus set two more tasks (fetching the Golden Apples of Hesperides and
capturing Cerberus), which Hercules also performed, bringing the total number of tasks
to twelve.
bErytheia there is a giant named Geryon, who has three bodies and three sets of legs all
connected at the waist. It's Hercules' job to fetch Geryon's beautiful herd of cattle, which are
colored red by the sunset. To get the job done, Hercules borrows a giant golden cup from the
sun god Helios and sails across the Mediterranean to the island of Erytheia. Before he can take
the cattle, Hercules has to kill the giant Erytion and his two-headed dog who guards them. After
that, Geryon himself comes to fight him, but Hercules takes out the three-bodied giant with
some massive whacks of his trusty club. Then Hercules herds the cattle into his golden cup-boat
and sails back to Greece.

It was supposedly Ten Labors only ordered by the wimpy king, Eurystheus. When Hercules
gets back with the red cattle of Geryon, Eurystheus pulls a fast one on him. The wimpy king tells
Hercules that he's not going to count the killing of the Hydra because Iolaus helped Hercules.
He also won't count Hercules' cleaning of the Augean stables because he used a river to do it,
instead of his own manpower.

"Whatever," says Hercules "I can do anything."

Let's go to the eleventh labor of Hercules.

The Eleventh Labor: To fetch the Apples of Hesperides

      Eurystheus tells Hercules to go fetch some golden apples from the nymphs known as the
Hesperides, who were said to represent the sunset. Incidentally, these golden apples were
Hera's wedding gift when she married Zeus. To get the apples, Hercules enlists the help of the
Titan Atlas, who is doomed by Zeus to hold the sky up on his back. Hercules tells Atlas that he'll
hold the sky up for a little while if the Titan wouldn't mind fetching some of those lovely golden
apples. Atlas, who is seriously sick of holding up the sky, agrees. When he comes back with the
apples, however, he suggests that Hercules keep the sky on his shoulders while Atlas delivers
the apples to Eurystheus.

Hercules thinks this sounds suspiciously like a trick. Our hero "agrees" with Atlas, but tells
the Titan to take back the sky for a second while Hercules puts a pad on his shoulders to ease
his burden. When Atlas takes the sky back, Hercules says, "See ya!" and heads off with the
apples.

The Twelfth Labor: To capture Cerberus

     For the twelfth and final labor, Eurystheus thinks up pretty much the worst thing he can
imagine: Hercules has to bring back the three-headed hellhound, Cerberus, Hades' vicious beast
that guards the gates of the underworld.

     Hercules makes his way down under and pops in on Hades, god of the dead. While in the
palace, Hercules comes across his fellow Greek hero, Theseus, and another dude name
Pirithous with their butts stuck to a bench. Hercules pulls with all his might and yanks Theseus
from the bench, leaving only a thin layer of his bottom on bench. When Hercules tries to pull
Pirithous up, however, the underworld starts shaking– Hades is not happy. Hercules and
Theseus ditch Pirithous and head on their way. Hercules goes before Hades and asks to borrow
Cerberus for a bit, so that the hero can complete his final labor. Hades is cool with it as long as
Hercules can wrestle the three-headed dog into submission without using any weapons.
Hercules finds Cerberus and squeezes the animal with his muscle bound arms. Cerberus bites,
scratches, and puts up quite a fight, but Hercules refuses to let go. Eventually, Cerberus realizes
he's been beaten and chills out. Hercules acles takes Cerberus back for Eurystheus to see and
then returns the hellhound to Hades.

      With that Hercules' Twelve Labors are complete. He has finally atoned for killing his
children. When he gets back to Thebes he gives his wife Megara to his friend Iolaus and goes on
his merry way. After that Hercules was made immortal as a reward for completing all of the
ridiculously hard tasks that Eurystheus assigned him.